Watch Texas AFT Retiree Plus Member Rita Runnels testify on the TRS pension bill. With less than two months to go in the 86th Session, lawmakers have started making big decisions about their financial priorities. Here’s what we know—both the House and Senate indicated this week they intend to spend about $9 billion on a combination of property tax relief...

Texas AFT President Louis Malfaro will testify in the House Public Education hearing tomorrow on the recommendations from the Texas Commission on School Finance. As you may recall from previous Hotlines, the commission included a recommendation for teacher “merit pay”—what the commission report calls a “proposed educator effectiveness allotment.” That’s a fancy way of saying a pay raise for a...

The Texas Commission on Public School Finance submitted its final report to the Legislature on New Year's Eve, meeting its deadline for recommendations for fixes to public education funding after nearly a year of meetings and hearings. The result is recommendations for detailed tweaks mixed with stressed policy goals focusing on "student outcomes" and a proposal that aims to increase...

The Texas Commission on Public School Finance's Revenues Working Group met Tuesday to hear the current state of public education funding in Texas and review recommendations from the Commission's Expenditures Working Group--a group of commission members tasked with recommendations for changes on how public education money is spent. On the funding front, Education Commissioner Mike Morath outlined that education spending...

Texas AFT represents all non-administrative certified and classified public school employees. We represent the interests of teachers, counselors, librarians, diagnosticians, custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, nurses, teaching assistants, clerical employees, and the other men and women who work so hard to make our schools work. We also represent employees in universities, colleges and community and junior colleges.

Texas AFT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and AFL-CIO. Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFT.